President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs aren’t exactly making companies move manufacturing to America, but it is getting them to try some interesting hijinks.
Apple airlifted 600 tons of iPhones — as many as 1.5 million devices — from India to the US to get ahead of Trump’s tariffs there, Reuters reports. Stepping up production in India, where the tariffs have always been poised to be lower than China (where most iPhones are produced), and pivoting where those phones are ultimately shipped was another way for Apple to avoid tariffs.
Hopes that these kinds of operational rerouting tactics will be employed en masse are one reason why stocks with massive exposure to China managed to have their second-best session on record Wednesday, even amid the escalation in levies between the US and China.
Bank of America wrote yesterday that it wouldn’t really be possible for Apple to completely produce iPhones in the US. Rather, the company could do final assembly here, and that would still drive up costs by 90%.